A former employee has filed a lawsuit against a major home improvement retailer, alleging severe sexual harassment and retaliation. On September 5, 2024, Monique Madrigal filed a complaint in the Superior Court of California for Ventura County against Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. and her supervisor, Juan Bazaldua.
Monique Madrigal's complaint details a series of disturbing allegations against her former employer and supervisor. According to the filing, Madrigal began working at Home Depot in January 2023 and transferred to the Oxnard location in March 2024. She claims that almost immediately after her transfer, her direct supervisor, Juan Bazaldua, began sexually harassing her. The alleged harassment included inappropriate comments and physical actions such as asking Madrigal to have sex with him, massaging her back without consent, picking her up against her will, and even showing his erection at work. The complaint states that Bazaldua's behavior escalated to the point where he rammed a forklift into Madrigal while making lewd gestures.
Madrigal alleges that when she rejected Bazaldua's advances and reported his behavior to Human Resources (HR), she faced retaliation. She claims that Bazaldua became irate and used his authority to single her out for criticism, assign extra work, yell at her, and ignore her work-related questions. Despite multiple complaints to HR and management about the harassment and retaliation, Madrigal asserts that Home Depot failed to take appropriate action. Instead of addressing the issue adequately, she was transferred to another store location while Bazaldua remained at the Oxnard store.
The lawsuit outlines several causes of action including harassment based on sex in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), sex/gender discrimination under FEHA, failure to investigate or remediate harassment and discrimination under FEHA, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation in violation of FEHA, and negligent supervision and retention. Madrigal is seeking general damages for emotional distress including anxiety, panic attacks, loss of sleep, depression; special damages; compensatory damages; punitive damages; attorney’s fees; costs of suit; pre-judgment interest; post-judgment interest; and any other relief deemed proper by the court.
The case is being handled by attorneys Ronald W. Makarem and Deepika Chandrashekar from Makarem & Associates APLC. The case ID is 2024CU QEO30255.